Personnel change, headmasters will change ... But the core values of the system would be expected to stay, more or less, the same.
You want to separate the Hyde concept from the Hyde reality? How? Hyde is a real-life application, not a theory.
First, staff and administration must be replaced. In the forty years since its founding Hyde has generated anger and dissatisfaction unusual for any school.
Second, there is an acute need for reform that will enhance the level of academics.
Third, the system of governance of the school and the distribution of authority must also be changed.
Fourth, controls need to be put in place against physical, verbal, and emotional abuse.
Fifth, the social benefit of a Hyde education cannot be assumed.
Finally, as for those "core values," are they better than public education, family, and thereapy (if needed)? It is counterintuitive that splitting up a family will unite a family[/quote]
Thank you for this succinct prescription for what's wrong with Hyde. Too many of the "leaders" at Hyde (and I use the term loosely) do not manifest the qualities I want my child to admire or mimic. There are a few good people there, but far too many behave in ways that I find abhorrent (beginning at the top with Joe Gauld). I have also found that the academic quality is extraordinarily uneven. As but one example, I encountered one teacher who spoke about his own academic failures and mediocre skills. Not surprisingly, his grammar was poor; this is what my child got to hear on a daily basis.
At Hyde academics clearly seem to take a back seat to the school's so-called (and I really mean so-called) character education. Hyde talks a good game about character education, but only a small percentage of the staff I've met demonstrate the kind of character that I choose to admire. More accurately, IMHO, Hyde provides education by a group of characters, rather than character education.
I know little about the governance structure. My guess, however, is that the governance is dominated by Hyde insiders and, as a result, suffers from the same myopic, self-congratulatory, arrogant leadership that one finds in the school staff.
I do believe that, for some kids, a boarding school experience is in everyone's best interest. Some parents enroll their child in a boarding school for all the right reasons (as opposed to merely shipping the kid away) - the opportunity to develop insights and independent living skills, to de-toxify some painful family dynamics, to provide healthy role models. Sadly, Hyde rarely lives up to its own rhetoric, in my opinion. While some people seem to be seduced by the Hyde mystique, many of us have figured out that Hyde is like the emperor without clothes. Perhaps it will fade from public view because of negative publicity, poor enrollments, etc.
